Dear Key Club,

Hope this finds you doing well.

Last week I shared a huge praise with you - prayer and financial support from Eaglebrook Church. This week, I’d like to continue praising God for his providence. Four Corners Assembly of God in White Lake, WI has also taken me on as one of “their” missionaries. The folks at Four Corners have been a tremendous blessing to me over the past months. I’ve been really encouraged by their huge heart for missions. I’m looking forward to visiting Four Corners on Sunday!

After visiting Four Corners, I’ll be sharing about Malachi with a small group in Wausau, WI on Sunday evening. I’d really appreciate your prayers as I meet with this group and share the vision of military teen ministry and my passion to serve in Germany.

I may have another sharing opportunity at a nearby church. At work this week, I spent some time visiting with the camp chaplain - a husband and wife team up to lead chapel once a week for the veterans at the camp. As I shared with them about military teen ministry, they expressed interest and said they’d chat with their church about having me come and share and a possible donation. Would you join me in praying for this potential partnership?

It’s so encouraging to see God at work in providing supporters and opening up doors to share with potential supporters. Thanks for joining me in prayer for this. I hope you’re encouraged too as you see the Lord answering these prayers!

Blessings on you,
Beth

Stars and Stripes: "Pacific schools offering additional counseling for kids with deployed parents"

I came across another article in the Stars and Strips this week. It discusses a new form of support the military is providing for families. As I've shared in the past, studies are revealing that long, multiple wartime deployments are taking their toll on children of service members. Counselors and mental health experts are being contracted by the military to provide support for students in schools. Although many teachers have great hearts for their students, it seems that many just aren't equipped to handle the emotional stress their students are experiencing. It appears that one of the most helpful things they are doing is opening up the door for communication between teachers and students. Counselors are letting teachers know which of their students have a parent serving elsewhere and may be dealing with some added stress as a result.

I think it's great to see the military stepping in to offer support for military families. I consider it a privilege to be able to support these families as well through serving with Malachi. What draws me to serving with Malachi, as opposed to working as a counselor in a school, is I have the freedom to really get to know students on a personal level and point them to Jesus.

While living in Okinawa, I subbed at Kadena Middle School fairly regularly for 3 years. During that same time I also worked with the middle school youth group. As I've reflected on my time in the school and in the youth group, I really loved how relational youth group was. Because school is more formal when it comes to adult-student relationships, I felt more limited in how I could engage with students.

So while I'm happy that schools have identified the need to help students cope with stress generated by their parents military service, I do feel it's equally important for students to plug into youth group and build relationships with adults who know Jesus. Ultimately, it's Jesus who can heal these kids and relieve their stress. I pray these students will come to know Christ and experience Peace like only Jesus can give.

Click here to read the article.

Dear Key Clubber,

Wow, can you believe May is here? And even though snow flurries are in the forecast for Northern Wisconsin later this week (seriously!?), summer is just right around the corner (I hope, at least!). Back in February, my dad left for Balad Air Base in Iraq for a 4 month deployment as a contractor. Now that it's May, I can finally say he'll be home in a month! Of all the deployments my dad made during his 30 years in the Air Force, this trip has been the longest. The 6+ weeks of training he had to attend prior to his deployment, made this trip 6 months long. I've been thinking about what it must be like for kids whose parent deploys for a year or more. Growing up, I hated it when my dad was even gone for a few weeks or months. I can't imagine him being absent for 12 months in a row.

Tomorrow, May 6th, is the National Day of Prayer. Would you join me in praying for all the men and women who are serving our nation around the world - many in harms way each day. Let's pray for their safety, endurance, and spiritual encouragement. Deployment experiences leave many asking deep spiritual questions. Pray that hearts would be open and that God would chose to reveal Himself to them in profound ways.

Let's also pray for the families of the deployed. May is the month for high school proms, end of the year band/choir concerts, award ceremonies, and for seniors - graduation. Both students and deployed parents are bummed that military service is separating them from experiencing these events together. Deployments are often extremely difficult for spouses, who are forced to become single parents while their service member is away. With this Sunday being Mother's Day, would you join me in praying for all the military moms out there. Let's pray God would encourage them in special ways.

Over the years I can think of a number of people who invested in me and offered encouragement while my dad was away and our family was stressed out during his absence. As a Malachi worker, I'm looking forward to coming alongside students and encouraging them in the midst potentially challenging times. I look forward to pointing families to Christ and teaching them to walk with the Lord and embrace His love and experience His peace.

Thanks for partnering with me in reaching the military community for Christ. As you can see, there's are so many ministry opportunities within the military and I'm so thankful for and encouraged by your support.

Because of Christ,
Beth

Dear Prayer Warriors,

Hope you’re doing well. I’d like to share with you some praise updates - hope you’re encouraged to know the Lord is at work!

Having grown up in the military chapel, I’ve never had a “home” church. When I moved to Wisconsin last summer, one of my prayers was to find a solid home church where I could plug into, build relationships, and be ministered to during my time in WI. Well, the Lord has blessed me with an amazing church. Today I became an official member at Eaglebrook Church! WooHoo!! Eaglebrook has been a tremendous encouragement to me as I raise support. Many people have joined the Key Club and just this past week, the church blessed me with a very generous donation! Praise God for such an amazing answer to prayer.

In addition to Eaglebrook’s support, I’ve been really encouraged by a few other donations over the past weeks and by the 3 new people who’ve joined my monthly giving team! I’m so thankful for all the gifts the Lord is providing through so many people!

Another thing I’m thankful for, is a new job! I just completed my first week of work at Camp American Legion - a rest and rehab facility where Wisconsin veterans can come and spend a week each summer. I’m working as the office manager, taking care of reservations, handling donations and helping out with a lot of the day to day tasks to make the camp “go.”

A couple of cool things about the job -

> I get to serve our military vets

> I’m going to put my paychecks towards the amount of money I need to raise

> I’m job sharing it with my mom, so I’ll have flexibility when it comes to being gone for any upcoming support raising opportunities

I know in these tough economic times many are struggling to find work. I’m super thankful for the Lord’s providence with this job and am excited to see Him providing me an opportunity to build contacts and raise support through this.

Thanks for your prayers as I raise support. It’s cool to see God drawing people to give! I’d LOVE to hear how the Lord is working in your life and know of anythings I can be praying for you about. If you have a moment this week, I’d love to get an update from you! I totally appreciate your partnership in praying. It brings me great peace knowing me and the ministry are being covered in prayer, and I would love to be able to lift you to our Lord this week also.

Because of Christ,

Beth

Dear Key Club,

Hi! How are you doing this week? I hope you're doing well.

Thanks so much for praying for the big high school retreat in Greece this past week. From the updates I've received from the field, it's safe to say it was a great retreat on many levels! During one of the teaching times, students had a chance to visit the city of Corinth. But the ultimate highlight of the week - 22 students made first time decisions for Christ!

The volcano eruption in Iceland that has disrupted travel for so many around the world, didn't impact the students and staff from Germany, since they traveled by bus and ferry. However, it is impacting the teams from Hume Lake and Truett Seminary (who helped lead the retreat) who are trying to fly home to California and Texas. Let's pray they're able to make it home soon, the Truett students have classes to finish up!

Last week I asked for prayers for a sharing opportunity tonight with a small group in Wausau. Unfortunately, a few people in the group are sick and they needed to cancel. But I think we'll be able to reschedule for a Sunday in May.

Would you join me in praying for more opportunities to share about Malachi with small groups and churches?

Thanks for your prayer partnership friends!

Beth

Dear Key Club,

Hello team! Trust you're doing well and hopefully enjoying some spring weather. Flowers are starting to bloom in the Northwoods, despite the snow flurries we had earlier this week. Here's a few pics of our deer. Since moving in last summer, 5 deer regularly graze through our yard. We've become quite attached to them. : )

^All 5 deer, do you see them? 2 on the left, 2 in the trees, and 1 to the right.

^Taken from our lower-level walkout. They were probably 25 feet from me!

SHARING OPPORTUNITY: Next Sunday evening I'll be sharing about Malachi with a small group in Wausau, Wisconsin. Would you pray for me as I share the vision of reaching military teens with the Gospel. Please pray that I'd communicate well and that those I share with would respond to the invitation to partner with me in this ministry.

RETREAT UPDATE: I've received a few e-mails this week from Malachi workers in Germany. After a 12 hour bus ride to Italy and a 20 hour ferry ride to Greece, the 200 students and staff arrived at the camp site in Tolo. Praise God for getting everyone there safely! The group will return to Germany next Sunday.

Would you join me in praying for...

> Safety throughout the week

> Relationships to be cultivated... between students, staff and Jesus!

> Endurance, wisdom and patience for staff as they lean into students

Thanks for journeying with me!

Beth

Dear Key Club,

Happy Easter friends! I hope you have a very joyous day celebrating the resurrection of Christ! Isn't it awesome that we serve a risen Lord?! Thanks so much for your partnership in sharing this message with teens in the military community.

(^Me and Tanner in SD this past week)

Thanks for your prayers this past week as I made my journey home. After driving over 3,200 miles, I arrived home on Thursday evening. What a great trip! I'm so thankful to have had the opportunity to see so many friends, and to share the story of the American military teen and invite people to join with me in reaching them with the Gospel!

This week the Malachi team in Germany is preparing for their upcoming spring break retreat. Over 200 students and staff will be traveling to Tolo, Greece this Friday for a weeklong camp. Would you pray for safe travels - they'll make the long trip via buses and a ferry boat ride.

This is an "outreach" retreat - Students who regularly come to youth group have been encouraged to invite their non-Christian friends to come with them. Please pray that as students hear the Gospel, their hearts would be soft and they'd respond to the Lord.

Students from Truett Seminary at Baylor and staff from Hume Lake Camp are partnering with Malachi to run the camp. Please pray for endurance and wisdom for these workers as they lead the camp, and invest in students.

Recently there has been some unrest in Greece. However, it seems that most of it has been pretty centralized in Athens. Would you pray that the retreat wouldn't be impacted negatively by the unrest. One positive result from the unrest is that it has caused the Euro to fall a bit, making the American dollar go a bit further - this is good for the retreat!

Thanks for journeying with me!

Beth